Image Source: Visual China

BEIJING, June 10 (TMTPOST) — Chinese social media company Soulgate Inc. has decided to withdraw its F-1 registration statement and will no longer issue securities under the requirement, the company announced on Friday in a document filed to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The company said that relevant payments made to the SEC will be saved to the company’s account for future application fees.

Soulgate filed its F-1 prospectus on May 10, 2021, intending to go public on Nasdaq under the ticker SSR. Later on June 17, the company updated its prospectus and announced that it planned to issue 13.2 million American depositary share(ADS) at the price range of US$13-US$15. But the company eventually announced on June 23 that it had suspended the IPO process on June 23.

“We are happy to see exceptional market response after we updated the price range,” Soul said in a statement. “During this process, the company realized that there are other possibilities in the capital market. After thorough consideration, the management team at Soul has decided to suspend the IPO process. Our biggest shareholder Tencent supports the decision.”

Soulgate, established in June 2015 in Shanghai, launched social media app Soul in November 2015. The app focuses on creating a digital socializing space for China’s Gen Z. On June 18, 2021, the company closed a US$167 million financing round led by Tencent and miHoYo. Before that, the company had snagged VC funding four times.

Soul’s prospectus shows that the company’s revenues grew by 604% from 70.7 million yuan to 498 million yuan. The company boasted revenues of 238 million yuan for the 12 months ended March 31, 2021, with daily active users of 9.1 million and 33.2 million monthly active users. It is said that Soul’s users spend around 40 minutes on the platform on average every day.

Tencent is the biggest shareholder of Soul, holding a 49.9% stake.